Tabletop Game Designer | Turning Test
An asymmetric cooperative board game with a custom ruleset, diverse role mechanics, and a gamemaster who guides players through the process of navigating and conquering a blind maze.
What is this game:
What makes us human? The most enduring question.
The Turning Test is an asymmetric cooperative board game where 5 players work together to navigate through blind mazes in a quest to become fully human. Four players represent Humanity’s collective consciousness, while the fifth player takes on the role of the Programmer, guiding them through the maze. Each player assumes a unique role—Parallel Processor, Scout, Architect, or Demolisher—bringing their own abilities to solve riddles and conquer challenges. Teamwork and coordination are essential to survive the blind maze.
The game evolves over time with Heirlooms, allowing past players to generate content for future players, passing down the wisdom of humanity and adding layers of depth and complexity with each playthrough.
What I did:
Role & Ability Design: Created unique player roles (Parallel Processor, Scout, Architect, Demolisher) with distinct abilities, balancing gameplay mechanics to encourage teamwork and strategic problem-solving.
Challenge Development: Designed complex mazes and riddle-based challenges that require coordination and cooperation among players, fostering immersive and engaging gameplay.
Progression & Replayability: Introduced the Heirloom system, allowing previous players to generate new content for future sessions, enhancing game depth and long-term replayability.
What I think:
Board Game Design: Evolving The Turning Test from Prototype to Playable Experience
The Turning Test originated from a prototype created by our team's director, with the goal of allowing players to discover messages left behind by previous players through exploration. However, the original concept relied on physically digging through soil to uncover buried containers, which, while immersive, posed challenges in terms of practicality and replayability.
As the Lead Designer, my first priority was to translate this prototype into a structured board game format, ensuring that it retained its core theme of discovery while becoming more accessible and replayable. This required rethinking mechanics, shifting from physical excavation to a rule-driven system that preserved the sense of exploration and hidden information without logistical barriers.
This adaptation process was critical in turning The Turning Test into a refined, engaging experience, balancing player agency, mystery, and asymmetrical cooperation while maintaining the original vision of uncovering the unknown.
Enhancing Replayability Through Role-Based Information Access
After refining the game flow, my next challenge was ensuring replayability. Given the structured nature of our maze-based progression, I recognized that each maze's replay potential was inherently limited. To address this, I reworked how players acquire information, introducing four distinct roles, each with unique ways of perceiving and interpreting the game world. This system ensured that each playthrough felt different, as players experienced the game from varied perspectives.
Additionally, I redesigned the maze system into a blind maze traversal, where players could not directly see their surroundings. Instead, they had to rely on the Programmer (a role similar to the DM in Dungeons & Dragons) to mediate information and interactions, creating a dynamic asymmetrical experience that deepened strategy and emergent storytelling.
These changes significantly improved player engagement and strategic diversity, reinforcing the game’s theme of discovery and uncertainty while maintaining long-term replayability.
Conclusion: Evolving the Prototype While Preserving Its Core Experience
Through systematic refinement and design iteration, The Turning Test evolved from a physical excavation prototype into a structured board game with enhanced replayability, asymmetrical roles, and strategic depth. While the final version differs significantly in form from the original concept, it successfully retains the core themes of discovery, hidden information, and exploration.
Despite these structural changes, player feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many highlighting how the game’s mechanics and narrative depth effectively capture the original prototype’s intended sense of mystery and meaning. This response reaffirms the success of our adaptation, proving that even with mechanical transformations, a game’s core experience can remain intact and compelling.
